Date: Fri 17-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-playing-field-NHS

Full Text:

School Board Hopes To Sell A Hill And Get A New Field

(with photo)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Anyone who has carried soccer gear up or down the steep hill to the upper

playing field at Newtown High School has probably thought about how much

easier it would be if there was no hill there at all.

Besides the inconvenience of lugging stuff up and down the hill, the members

of the Board of Education identified the risk of injury to anyone climbing the

steep incline to get to the upper field, including parents and members of the

public who want to watch soccer or other games played up there.

Dominick Posca, School Building and Grounds Supervisor for the Newtown Board

of Education, said that "it is a poor athletic facility right now, but that

could be corrected."

The cost for flattening the hill and preparing the newly enlarged field for

sports use was estimated by a landscape architect at $800,000. However, the

Board of Education expects to be able to sell the 30,000 cubic yards of sand

that forms the hill for approximately $90,000. The Newtown Board of Education,

in their preliminary plan, has therefore recommended that $710,000 be set

aside for a rear field upgrade at Newtown High School for the 2000/2001 school

year.

Some students, like sophomore Keith Sigler, would rather find a cheaper

solution for the hill and use the extra money to "build a skate park with

ramps" for skate boarding, in-line skating and related activities.

Students suggested a better path or stairs up to the hill would be a lot

cheaper. There is a gradual sloped path to the upper hill on one side, but

most people prefer to take the short cut up the steep slope anyway.

Well-located stairs would make it easier to get up and down the hill, but as

Mr Posca put it, "You don't gain space with stairs."

He said that "all the sports teachers are requesting additional space, and we

have X amount of acres to work with" (about 47 acres including buildings).

Flattening the hill would increase the usable space for sports."

Although there might be some noise during the removal of the hill, Mr Posca

said that the sand-laden trucks would use the Oakview entrance to the fields,

well away from the school buildings if and when they do take on the job.